SAN ANTONIO – A new club is forming in San Antonio to support women who work in robotics.
“What this chapter is going to do is really elevate San Antonio’s profile within our country, throughout the world, as a place, as a center for advanced robotics. And we’re open for business. And hopefully that will attract more people to our region to do this type of work,” said Stephanie Garcia, Business Development and Communications for Port San Antonio.
Garcia is one of the founding members of the first Texas chapter of Women in Robotics.
The group will be hosting different events next year and they hope to start a mentoring program for women and young girls in robotics.
Ivy Vasquez Sandoval who is a software engineer at Plus One Robotics, is a new club member.
“Nowadays with these girls coming up in the robotics scene, I feel that they can be unapolotigetically women and unapologetically feminine. And I think that is a wonderful change,” Sandoval said.
Sarah Rogers, a manager of the robotics software section at Southwest Research Institute, is also excited about the new club.
“I am excited that younger women are going to be able to see opportunities that maybe they didn’t realize were available to them,” Rogers said.
Girls from the robotics team at Lutheran High School met some of the members of this new club and are excited about the opportunities.
Julia Brockmann, 17, is passionate about robots.
“I just love creating something that can although might seem like it can’t help people, it really can in the future,” Brockmann said.
For the next group of girls who might be interested in learning robotics, Brockmann has a message.
“Just go for it. Like, don’t be afraid. There’s a lot of people out there that can help you, and there’s a lot of resources that, you know, you can learn from. And I think it’s a great learning experience,” she said.